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2020 CFP National Championship Odds Tracker

Sascha Paruk

By Sascha Paruk

Updated:


  • Joe Burrow led the LSU Tigers to an undefeated, national-title winning season in 2019-20.
  • The champs were longshots to win the championship in the preseason, while Clemson and Alabama were heavy favorites.
  • Use the graphs below to relive the thrilling season and see how the odds changed over the course of the year.

The 2019-20 college football season will be remembered for one thing above all others: the sheer brilliance of Joe Burrow and his LSU Tigers. The Bayou Bengals won their first title since 2007, and they did it in arguably the most-dominant season in recent history.

LSU went 15-0 with wins over Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas. Each one was a top-ten team at the time it faced LSU. The Tigers’ convincing national-championship win over Clemson (42-25) ended Clemson’s 29-game winning streak.

But LSU’s performance was not something most people saw coming in the preseason, something that is evident from their preseason national title futures.

Use the graphs below to see how LSU’s title odds progressed over the course of the year, along with the odds for all the other top contenders.

Top 2020 National Title Contenders

  • [Jan. 7] LSU’s odds to win the title have shortened ever so slightly over the last week, going from -210 to roughly -225 on average.
  • [Dec. 30] LSU and Clemson are set to meet in the title game and LSU has become a -210 favorite after opening at -195. Stay tuned for updates on further odds movement as Jan. 13th approaches.
  • [Dec. 9] The four-team playoff is set, and LSU is now at the top of the odds largely because they get to face the weakest of the four: Oklahoma.
  • [Dec. 2] Alabama is off the board after losing the Iron Bowl. The biggest gainers were Utah and Oklahoma.
  • [Nov. 26] Oregon’s loss to Arizona State led to gains for Georgia, Alabama, Utah, and Oklahoma, who are now in a four-team race for the last CFP berth.
  • [Nov. 18] Despite sitting outside the top-four in the CFP rankings and losing Tua Tagovailoa for the season, Alabama is still fourth in the title odds at +967.
  • [Nov. 8] Clemson dropped slightly after getting the #5 spot in the first CFP rankings, but not by much; the Tigers are still +225 favorites.
  • [Nov. 5] Baylor has entered the top ten for the first time this year, but the Bears are still a distant +12500.
  • [Oct. 22] Wisconsin (+4500) has tumbled after losing to Illinois as 30-point favorites. Alabama also fell to +250 due to Tua Tagovailoa’s ankle injury.
  • [Oct. 16] Georgia’s loss to South Carolina has seen their odds (+1600) tumble out of the top five. LSU (+750) replaces the Bulldogs.
  • [Oct. 10] Auburn dropped to +5000 after losing to Florida, but remains in the top ten by the skin of its teeth.
  • [Oct. 4] Penn State is in the top ten for the first time (+6067), bumping out Florida (+6600) even though the Gators are still unbeaten.
  • [Sep. 27] LSU (+1100) has bounced Oklahoma (+1267) out of the top-five favorites.
  • [Sep. 18] The LSU Tigers are moving up (now +1800) but haven’t quite cracked the top five, still a little behind Oklahoma (+1400).
  • [Sep. 10] Two straight shutouts has boosted Wisconsin (+4000) into the top ten, while Texas (+8000) has dropped out after losing to LSU in a thriller.
  • [Sep. 3] Any questions about Ohio State under Ryan Day (or rather without Urban Meyer) were answered emphatically in OSU’s Week 1 rout of FAU. The Buckeyes scored four straight TDs to open the game, led 35-0 at halftime, and cruised to a 45-21 victory. Their title odds went from +1400 to +1000 as a result.
  • [Aug. 27] Ohio State is level with Oklahoma again at +1400 (T4th-best odds)  on with Week 1 less than 48 hours away.
  • [Aug. 22] No changes in the top ten, but Clemson is at an all-time high … make that low? Their odds (+183) are as short as they’ve ever been, is what I’m trying to say.
  • [Aug. 16] There’s a big gap between teams #3-7 and teams #8-10. Michigan is #7 at +1600, while Texas is #8 at +2525.
  • [Aug. 10] Georgia has moved from +900 at the start of August to +813 just a week later. That’s still well behind Clemson (+190) and Alabama (+223), but not as far behind as before.
  • [July 19] The Big Ten is on the rise. Both Ohio State (+950 to +910) and Michigan (+1500 to +1400) got shorter over the last two weeks, while the three National Championship favorites (Clemson, Alabama, Georgia) stagnated.
  • [July 3] Each of the top-four favorites (Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, & Ohio State) saw its average National Championship odds get slightly longer in July.
  • [June 19] LSU is moving up in the odds, rising from +3700 to +2800, bumping Washington from the top ten. The Pac-12 is now unrepresented in the top-ten title favorites.
  • [May 7] Clemson and Alabama are nearly even at the top with Georgia and Ohio State steadily making gains.
  • [Apr. 17] The gap between Clemson and Alabama has narrowed slightly after Clemson’s Spring Game, while Oklahoma has jumped into the top five.
  • [Jan. 8] Clemson is listed as the favorite at nearly every sportsbook.
  • [Jan. 7] Online betting sites opened their 2020 National Championship odds with Alabama listed as the favorite, before they were dismantled 44-16 in the National Championship Game by Clemson.

Closing Clemson vs LSU National Championship Odds

Team Odds
LSU -205
Clemson +175

Odds as of Jan. 13, 2020.

Sascha Paruk
Sascha Paruk

Managing Editor

Sascha has been working in the sports-betting industry since 2014, and quickly paired his strong writing skills with a burgeoning knowledge of probability and statistics. He holds an undergraduate degree in linguistics and a Juris Doctor from the University of British Columbia.

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